Directed by Lisa Hurwitz, 2022, United States, Not Rated, 80 min.

The Automat recounts the lost history of the iconic restaurant chain Horn & Hardart, which served affordable-priced quality food to millions of New Yorkers and Philadelphians for more than a century. Found by Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart in 1888, it revolutionized the nation’s restaurant scene with comfortable interiors, quality food, and state of the art technology for the early 20th century. The Automat illustrates how the company both served the public with great food and at the same time treated its employees with fairness and integrity. Mel Brooks is one of several prominent Americans paying homage in the film, along with the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Secretary of State Colin Powell, actors Carl Reiner and Elliott Gould, the Horn family and the Hardart family, and dedicated former employees.